The present invention relates to a device for facilitating medicating a patient and more particular to a patient care device that facilitates delivering a therapeutic aerosol by endotracheal means deep into the lungs of a patient.
Delivery of medications into the lungs of a patient is generally accomplished in two different ways, e.g. either or by directly delivering a liquid bolus of the drug or by insertion of a delivery catheter through the larynx or through an artificial airway such as endotracheal or by a tracheostomy tube. However, the presence of an endotracheal tube poses a particular problem since the endotracheal tube operates as a significant site of impaction of an externally generated therapeutic aerosol. Moreover, some endotracheal tube materials may promote aerosol rainout while the presence of an electrostatic charge on the tube itself can also reduce the ability of the aerosol to pass through the tube. Therefore, it would be highly desirable to have a new and improved method and apparatus for delivering a therapeutic aerosol by endotracheal means deep into the lungs of a patent.
An aerosol delivery system includes an endotracheal tube with a sub-port having a sufficient diameter to permit the passage of a sub-port tube therethrough. The sub-port tube passes within the interior of the endotracheal tube via the sub-port and includes a passageway that terminates in an atomizer nozzle at the distal end of the sub-port tube. The atomizer nozzle and the endotracheal tube are integrally connected to one another at a distal end base outlet of the endotracheal tube. A delivery conduit having an atomizer connector at its distal end is adapted to be connected to a canister for delivering fluid under pressure. The delivery conduit has a sufficient length to pass within the sub-port tube to lockingly engage the atomizer nozzle atomizer, whereby fluid delivered under pressure from the canister flows to the atomizer nozzle causing an aerosol mist to be dispensed outwardly from the base outlet of the endotracheal tube.